Digital Platforms Implement Privacy-Centric Policies: What Does it Mean for Competition?

The data economy, which is the basis for many digital products and services, has been recently facing headwinds by a number of regulations worldwide that aim to better protect user privacy. Notably, digital platforms now increasingly often announce and implement privacy-centric policies. In this article, Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (“ATT”) is studied as a representative example of such. Following a brief description of the policy, the remainder of the article primarily reviews the current state of research and investigations by competition authorities to provide insights on the possible effects of the privacy change. While the focus is on the implications the policy has for competition in Apple’s mobile ecosystem, the article also highlights the platform’s role in deciding potential winners – including themselves – with its implementation of the policy and discusses weighing the potential costs against the benefits through improved user privacy.

By Reinhold Kesler^[1]

I. INTRODUCTION

In recent years, several regulations worldwide came into effect that aim to better protect user privacy and, by this, set limits to the data economy that fuels many digital products and services, e.g., through targeted advertisements. Interestingly, digital platforms increasingly often enact privacy-centric policies, too. In this article, Apple’s privacy change called App Tracking Transparency (“ATT”) is studied as a representative example of such. Following a b